On the month of International Women’s Day, how can we keep the momentum going towards gender parity?

This month marks the start of the Chinese Year of the Dragon, which traditionally symbolises strength, vitality and energy. This seems at odds with the behaviour of the Chinese stockmarket over recent years, with the MSCI China index having fallen by more than 50 percentage points since the beginning of 2020, and by 30.9% over…

For the past few years, UK equities have remained in the doldrums, with the MSCI United Kingdom index achieving just over half of the total return of its All-Country World counterpart during the past five years, according to data from FE Fundinfo. The problem intensifies further down the cap spectrum, with the MSCI United Kingdom…

This month’s cover story raises the question of whether platforms should prevent investors from buying into certain funds or trusts, if they deem them not to provide fair value or to put consumers’ capital at unreasonable levels of risk. While the topic is controversial, with strong opinions on either side of the debate, it highlights…

This month’s cover story is focused on fund manager turnover in the industry. What has sparked the recent spate of fund manager departures, how can a firm best execute and communicate a change in personnel and – most importantly for DFMs and fund selectors – what will the future cohort of managers look like? Portfolio…

As outlined in this month’s cover story, returning to work after an extended career break can be challenging for anybody – not just those working in asset management. However, there is one particular nuance of this sector which others don’t necessarily come up against – a performance track record. Funds are often selected for their…

It is very difficult to talk about the IA Targeted Absolute Return (TAR) sector without referencing the oncemighty Abrdn Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund (or Gars, to most) which, at various points over the years, has accounted for almost a third of the sector’s total assets. A few weeks ago, it hit the headlines that…

The idea of just what constitutes a properly diversified portfolio has evolved over recent decades to include ever more asset classes to sit alongside the traditional favourites of equities and bonds. Indeed, research a year or two back by BlackRock into the approach of US endowment funds – so often held out as paragons of…